Italy and France in June/July

They have roughly 1 month to play around with. They have to be home by 7/10 and can leave anywhere from 6/10-6/14. The wedding is Saturday 6/17 at Chiesa di San Pietro in Porto Venere, which looks absolutely amazing in itself.

We flew between cities in Italy because I didn’t want to spend as much time on the train. Used Jet US or something like that and it was $40-$50 per person. Used a car service to get to and from the airport.

Yeah, 1 day in Venice will probably just make one hate VEnice.

Its a pretty unique place that you get lost in easily and during the day it is a crushing shitshow of tourists. At night it is lovely though.

My favorite way to travel between cities in Europe is by train. They are usually fast, easy and on schedule.
I also find it surprisingly easy to deal with rental cars.

You will not want a rental car in Florence but you will want one to explore the Tuscan countryside. From there you can drive to La Spezia (we did). Or you can train.

While you are in LaSpezia make sure you spend a couple of days in the Cinque Terre. If you don’t want to change hotels you can stay in LaSpezia and easily take the train to the five villages although LaSpezia itself is not that charming. Its main attraction is its proximity to the Cinque Terre. I would recommend spending a couple of days in one of the towns, Vernazza being my favorite and Monterosso al Mare being the biggest.

This will be a wonderful trip.

I was going to suggest flying into Bologna, which is what I did and it was a breeze, but I just looked it up and the US carriers have stopped flying there direct. I think AA and UL both had flights there pre-covid.

To be honest, I would fly into Venice, stay there 2-3 days then train down to Florence for 3 days then train over to La Spieza.

That assumes you leave on the 10th. If you leave closer to the wedding date, fly into Milan and then head straight down to La Spezia, relax, enjoy Cinque Terra for several days and then after the wedding head out and explore Italy with plans to fly somewhere in France from Venice, Rome, etc. depending on which direction you go.

You can get around anywhere in Europe using trains, and the high speed trains like TGV get you there pretty quick and easy. Just know that many of the trains (including all of the high speed and nicer lines) require an advanced reservation and seat assignment. They can book up and fares are generally priced like airlines - the earlier you book the cheaper the ticket and last minute fares are more expensive. Smaller regional trains are generally cheaper, slower and you can walk up and buy a set fare ticket from a kiosk minutes before boarding. Just plan in advance and know what type of train you will take. Rome2Rio is a great wedbsite that will list all transportation options between cities in Europe. They are also bus lines that are much nicer and more convenient than our Greyhound and sometimes that is a good option. The budget airlines are fine and sometimes this is the best option to get from A-B. For example easyjet has a flight from Rome to Nantes, France (you mentioned spending a week in this region) and that would save you a lot of long train rides, or avoid the hassle of having to connect through CDG. Then again there may be things you want to explore in between.

Rome2Rio.com It's got a mobile app as well. It'll get you anywhere, including trains, car rental, flights, ferries, the lot. It tells you how long trips take, gives you train numbers, etc. It also gives you train station names in the local language, which speeds up figuring out which direction of the train you need to get on, etc. I've used it in Europe and Asia extensively.

Given the flexibility in your itinerary, I don't know that I'd book anything except your flights in and out of Europe. That's the way I do it. I learned early on, even when I was single, that you find stuff you never expected, and may want to hang around. Or you figure out that Rome isn't as interesting as you thought it was, and you want to duck out a day early, for example.

I think others gave given pretty good reviews of TAP. I always prefer a short hop connection inside Europe, than a connection through DC, NYC, etc. and the flight from Lisbon to Italy should give you some great views. I don't know what the flight path would be the day of travel, but "as the crow flies" you may get some spectacular views of the coast out the left side of the aircraft.

This advice has them skipping Florence which I don't agree with at all.

I'd spend time in Florence over Rome 1000 times out of 1000

I get people NEEDING to see the Coliseum and Vatican and so on...

but Rome is at times not that enjoyable. It is extremely chaotic, hot, unorganized, and bee hive.

I need to go to Rome one day and NOT do the tourist stuff and just be able to try and enjoy it.

But Florence is extremely enjoyable. Beautiful city, more relaxed pace, no cars, great museums, great food.

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Venice in June/July sounds like a terrible tourist filled fiasco.

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Chinese will be back this summer in full force. Venice/Rome/Pisa will be steaming hot messes.